Mission Teams

I am Famous

Aubrey S. traveled with us to the Dominican Republic in January. Here she shares how God reminded her of His incredible power during the trip.

Upon returning to the United States, I really wanted to continue praying for the four little girls—the ones who never left my side—specifically by name. On our last day in San Miguel, I had every intention of bringing paper and pen with me before departing the school to walk to the basketball courts for game time, but it wasn’t until the last second that I remembered. I quickly salvaged a pen out of my backpack, but I had no paper… so my “bright idea” was to have the girls sign their names on my arm. However, the Dominican Republic is hot. Always. And hot means sweat. And sweat means ink won’t stay on skin. What was I going to do?!

Ramon, aka “Nacho,” saw my dilemma and brought over a permanent marker. I thought, “Great, but permanent marker plus sweaty skin equals sweaty, smudgy ink on skin.” But his idea was to have the children write on my shirt! I hesitated for a second. I don’t usually think, “Oh, let’s have people draw whatever they want on my clothing and ruin it.” But I quickly realized how perfect it would be to have a shirt with their names! And that’s where it all began.

My girls signed my shirt. Once they were finished, another child saw and she wanted to write her name, too. And so did her friend. And so did the onlookers. And of course this brought attention from everyone, and they ALL wanted to sign my shirt! At one point, my girl, Genesis, asked for my name on her arm. I thought this was super sweet, so I wrote it. But one must realize that these children are not like the kiddos back home—if one kid gets something, then everyone else wants that something. So guess what? I might as well have been famous because it wasn’t long until 20+ arms of eager children were in my face wanting my name, too! I only had one marker and a useless pen, and I had to sign everyone’s arm! I wrote on arm after arm after arm, and at one point I decided to draw a flower by my name. Well, then everyone who already had my name came back for a flower!

Working as fast as I could, one of the children grabbed the marker out of my hands. My pen disappeared as well, and I was relieved to have a reason to take a break from the overwhelming mob. I looked around as the kiddos began to disperse and noticed more names appearing on arms. They were going from American to American, getting all of our signatures! With just one marker and one pen, each child had our names by the end of the morning.

I was so fascinated by their determination to take one thing—something so small that began with a marker and a name on a shirt—and spread it, transforming it to names on every arm available. It touched my heart because God revealed to me the significance of what occurred that day. It reminded me of the power, influence, and awe of our Heavenly Father’s wondrous power! Jesus feeding the 5,000 began with one basket of five loaves of bread and three fish. God writes our names on His heart, and His name on all of our hearts. God’s love is infectious. The harvest is plenty, but the workers are few. God can use one person to make a huge impact. What happened that morning parallels so many biblical messages, and I got to experience it firsthand.